but a short time ago, defense secretary pennetta with a statement saying the team put the safety of another american ahead of their own. abc's muhammad lila with the story of the rescue in eastern afghanistan. >> reporter: it happened under the cover of darkness. a joint american and afghan special forces raid to rescue this man. dilip joseph, an american doctor working for a colorado-based charity, morningstar development. >> this is a team that has lots of training on hostage rescues. but until you get in there and actually do it, you never know what you are actually going to find. >> reporter: here's how it all went down. on wednesday, joseph and two afghan colleagues were returning from a medical clinic in a remote province when they were kidnapped at a check point along a highway by armed militants. they were then taken to a mountainous region along the pakistan border. the afghan captives were eventually released but joseph wasn't. spending three terrifying days in captivity. when u.s. intelligence showed joseph's life was in imminent danger, the military made its move. >> a hostage r